Understanding ABLE Account Savings and Public Benefits

The value of the ABLE account that exceeds $100,000 (the excess ABLE resources) will count toward SSI’s resource limit.

→If the combination of excess ABLE resources combined with non-ABLE countable resources are below $2,000 SSI eligibility continues.

→If the excess ABLE resources are more than $2,000 and non-ABLE resources are below $2,000 SSI is indefinitely suspended. The person’s SSI is reinstated when the ABLE account balance no longer causes the resource limit to be exceeded and the person is otherwise SSI eligible (meets all SSI rules).

→If countable non-ABLE resources alone are above $2,000 and make the person ineligible for SSI due to excess resources, monthly payments and Medicaid are suspended. After 12 months, SSI benefits and Medicaid terminate (but Medicaid could continue under another category).

Assume the excess ABLE resources are below $2,000 and the non-ABLE countable resources are below $2,000.

→If the excess ABLE resources (value above $100,000), combined with non-ABLE resources, exceeds the $2,000 resource limit, the person’s SSI will be indefinitely suspended so long as they continue to be otherwise SSI eligible. That is because non-ABLE resources alone are not over the SSI resource limit. The person’s SSI is reinstated when the ABLE account balance no longer causes the resource limit to be exceeded and the person is otherwise SSI eligible (meets all SSI rules).

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